‘C’mon, please don’t do this’: SFA, in response to diner appearing to eat off hawker centre table

SINGAPORE – One should not eat food that has been dropped on an unclean tabletop, said the Singapore Food Agency (SFA).

In a LinkedIn post on June 21, the agency responded to an online article about a TikTok video where a diner appeared to be eating noodles off the table at a hawker centre.

“C’mon, please don’t do this,” said SFA in its post, adding that the surface of a food item would have been contaminated by bacteria once it is dropped on a dirty surface.

“And there is no such thing as the ‘three-second rule’,” it added.

The three-second rule is a popular myth that suggests dropped food is still safe to eat if it is picked up within three seconds. Several scientific studies have, however, debunked this myth in the past.

In the TikTok video posted in late May, a diner is seen using a pair of chopsticks to pick up noodles on what appears to be the lid of a takeaway plastic container. The TikTok user asked viewers if they would eat food directly off the table, even if the table has already been cleared.

“Okay there is a plastic cover otherwise it’s criminal,” said one TikTok user.